What Are SMART Goals?
You’ve probably heard it a hundred times - make sure you set goals for your fitness. But what constitutes a good fitness goal? How do you know if the goals you set are realistic?
We’re breaking it down and explaining the importance of setting SMART goals…
S = SPECIFIC
When you’re setting a goal whether it be fitness related, nutrition related or even a savings goal - it should be specific.
Take weight loss as a common example.
When you start exercising, saying ‘my goal is to lose weight’ is not very specific. We don’t know how much weight you want to lose in total, per week, what your target weight is - we need to narrow this down to make it achievable.
Changing this to ‘I want to lose 10 pounds in total and I want to lose 1-2 pounds per week’ is a much more specific goal and will help focus you more as you have a specific number to aim for.
M = MEASURABLE
Making a goal measurable is essential for keeping an eye on your progress.
Let’s take our weight loss example again - by setting a specific 1-2 pound loss per week goal, we can easily measure this by taking our weight on the scales every week and recording the number.
Equally if your goal was to eats more fruit and veg - we can easily measure this by filling out a food diary. Whatever your goal, you need to be able to measure it regularly to keep on track.
A = ACHIEVABLE
Setting an achievable goal is important as it means your motivation will be higher and you are more likely to keep on track as your target is within a suitable reach.
Say we set a goal of ‘I want to lose 20 pounds in 3 weeks’ but you have never been to the gym before and you can only come once a week.
This is not really an achievable goal as we average 1-2 pounds of weight loss each week and we all have other commitments as well as the gym so it would mean completely overhauling our weekly routine.
However, if we changed this goal to ‘I want to lose 20 pounds in 3 months’ - this is a much more achievable goal as we would be aiming to lose an average of 8 pounds a month which can be done. It won’t be easy it will keep us motivated because it is achievable.
R = REALISTIC
Creating a realistic goal is essential. If your goals are not realistic then they won’t be achievable and this could cause you to lose motivation and give up.
Let’s relate this back to our weight loss goal.
Say we set a goal of ‘I would like to lose 10 pounds in my first month of training’ but you are new to the gym and haven’t exercised much before.
Whilst this is not necessarily unachievable, we would say this is unrealistic as most of us starting a new fitness routine will take time to adjust. We also need to remeber that it’s not all about the exercise, we also need to look at diet and lifestyle, so there is a lot to think about.
If we were to change this to ‘I want to lose 5 pounds in my first month of training’ this is much more realistic and if we lose more than this, we will be even more encouraged! Set a realistic goal with room to overachieve rather than an unrealistic goal that could make us feel like we have underachieved.
T = TIME
The final element of our smart goal is time. This is helped by splitting our overall goal into short, medium and long term goals.
Let’s circle back to our weight loss goal. Say we set our overall goal to ‘I want to lose 3 stone in 6 months’
We can help track our goal by splitting this into a short medium and long term goal - for example:
Short term = I want to lose 8 pounds in my first month
Medium Term = I want lose 24 pounds by 3 months
Long Term = I want to lose 42 pounds by 6 months
By having mini goals associated with your main goal, it helps keep track of progress and gives you motivation each time you hit them!
Example of a SMART Goal for Running
‘ I want to be able to run 10k in 12 months time’
Is it specific? - yes, we have a specific time and distance
Is it measurable? - yes, we can record the runs on strava to measure progress
Is it achievable? - yes, we can schedule in runs each week and over a year can build up distance
Is it realistic? - Yes, we are not aiming for 12 weeks but 12 months so even if we only run once a week we can build up our mileage
Is it time conscious? - Yes, we can split this into:
Short = 2.5k in the first 3 months
Medium = 5k in 6 months time
Long = 10k in 12 months
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